THANK YOU'S for a Successful Spring2Action

SOHO girls, watched over by Del Ray Program Director Angela,
work hard on their hand-written thank-you notes to Spring2Action donors.

On Wednesday, April 5th, the whole community (Alexandria and beyond!) mobilized to give a total of $1,592,459 to local non-profits, including many AMP programs.  Casa Chirilagua Mentors won the contest of most donations over Casa Kids Club and Casa Bible Study, while the entire organization received 4th place for most overall donors and 2nd place for most overall dollars!  The Alexandria Seaport Foundation received 7th for most overall dollars, while Space Of Her Own had a record-breaking fundraising year and finished 15th for most overall donors and 17th for most overall dollars. Casa Chirilagua, Community Lodgings, Space of Her Own, and Wright to Read all received matching grants from the Mason Hirst Foundation.  BRYCE Project and CCNA: RARE also participated in the event and received substantial donations.  On behalf of all AMP programs, we thank everyone who contributed!  

Thanks is the most important part, as 10 SOHO boys and girls learned this past week.  For an entire day each on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, 8 girls from Space Of Her Own and 2 boys from Space Of His Own gathered together to create hundreds of hand-written thank-you's to everyone who donated to their program.  Each wrote about what the donations will be used for, how their mentor helps them, and what their favorite part of SOHO is.  While the task was daunting and left the participants with some cramped fingers from so much writing, each expressed at the end of the day how grateful they were to everyone who had donated to make SOHO possible, and how rewarding it was to be able to express those thanks personally.  

Spring2Action is a yearly day of giving sponsored by Act for Alexandria.  Learn more about this year's fundraising results, and continue to follow AMP to see what amazing future events and projects these contributions support.  

Career Connection

Everyone was in business dress, the tables were each set up with name plates, and continuous noise from dozens of conversations filled the air.  From the outside, it appeared to be a typical career fair, where interested job-seekers took turns speaking to local professionals.  But last month's Career Connection event, hosted by the BRYCE Project, was anything but typical.  

A BRYCE Project student talks
with a female professional about
career and education options.

The "job-seekers" were not potential applicants after all, but high school students from TC Williams looking to jump-start their career by learning about their education and job options before even applying to college.  And every one of the attendees---students, professionals, volunteers, and guest speaker---were all female.  The goal of the event, aligned with the goal of the host program, was to showcase successful women and give high school girls the opportunity to understand their school and career choices from people of their own gender.  In addition to specific job information, professionals answered questions about job skills and work-life balance.  

Keynote speaker Kristin Wright

The keynote speaker was local News4 Washington reporter, Kristin Wright. She has received an Emmy nomination for Best Feature and been honored by the National Association of Black Journalists, the Associated Press, and the American Literacy Corporation for her volunteer work. 

After a day of learning and intense discussion, attendees were able to relax and enjoy some food and treats together, toasting to a successful day of female empowerment and personal development. 

BRYCE Project Open House

Community Service and Youth Enrichment are two of the tenants of the BRYCE Project.  Started four year ago, BRYCE meets on Monday evenings, where high school girls and volunteers gather in a safe space to do service projects.  Members also meet for weekend events.  This past Saturday, BRYCE traveled to the Microsoft store in Pentagon City to take classes on coding and Microsoft Office.

In honor of National Mentoring Month, the Alexandria Mentoring Partnership joined with BRYCE to set up an "Open House" by tabling outside the Microsoft store, and inviting mall goers to go in and see what the mentoring program was up to.